A drawer unit, optionally called a chest of drawers, may have a frame, optionally called a carcase, and drawers. The frame may have two sides, a top and bottom, and a back forming five of the six sides of a rectangular prism. Sides may be defined by, for example, a solid surface, a system of horizontal and vertical members, or merely a pair of posts, one or more of which may be shared with an adjacent side. The sixth side, or front, may have a face frame with horizontal cross members spanning between sides of the face frame. Alternately, the front may be defined by the edges of the sides and interior frames or plates spanning between the sides. The cross members of the face frame or the interior frames or plates divide the frame into a series of cavities, each cavity sized to accept a corresponding drawer. The drawers may rest on the cross members, frames or plates, directly or through runners attached to the frame. Alternately, the drawer may be supported on glides, alternately called sliders or other names, which are mechanisms having a pair of matched components, one of the components attached to the drawer, one to the frame.
In plastic drawer units, a frame may be assembled from stacked sub-frames, Each sub-frame may have a horizontal plate or frame and four posts extending upwards from the horizontal frame to a height slightly greater than a corresponding drawer. Several sub-frames may be attached together in a vertical stack with a top placed on the upper sub-frame to form a multi-drawer frame. U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,806 describes an example of such a plastic drawer unit.